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Andrex was originally developed in 1942 by paper manufacturer Bowater, as a disposable handkerchief. Harrods department store in London sold the handkerchiefs exclusively. Before Andrex, brands such as Bronco and Izal produced products that were harsher. They were mainly sold through chemists and known as “shinies”.[4]

The name Andrex comes from St Andrews's Mill in Walthamstow, where the toilet tissue was first made, the concept of two ply luxury paper having been inspired by the facial tissues used by American women, as witnessed by the man who created the name Andrex, Ronald Keith Kent. It was the first two-ply tissue.

In the late 1940s or early 1950s, Bowater formed a joint venture with the Scott Paper Company, Bowater-Scott, that specialized in tissue products including Andrex.

One of the most popular TV ads in the UK almost did not happen. The original idea in 1972 was for a girl to run through a house trailing a roll of Andrex. The television regulators did not approve this as they felt it encouraged children to be wasteful.[4] Bowater-Scott's Marketing Director, Raymond Dinkin decided to use a Labrador puppy instead. Since then there have been 130 different adverts featuring the puppy.

In 1986, Bowater sold Bowater-Scott to Scott Paper, and in 1995, Kimberly-Clark purchased Scott Paper.

In 2004, Andrex replaced its advertising slogan “Soft, Strong and very very Long”, with “Tuggable, Huggable softness”, and changed to “Be Kind To Your Behind” in 2008.[6] By 2015, it was using the slogans “Andrex clean” and “How Andrex do you feel?”[7]